Legal Question in Disability Law in Washington

Re: disability discrimination??

You need to figure out what sort of reasonable accommodation your employer can make to allow you to perform the essential functions of your position. The best way to do this is to involve a lawyer on your behalf who has knowledge of the ADA and your doctor. He or she will sit down with you, figure out what your essential job functions are and what can be done to make it possible for you to do that work. This result needs to be communicated to the employer before any sort of adverse action is taken against you.

If you cannot locate a lawyer on lawguru to help you with this situation, you can check out www.nela.org.

Re: disability discrimination??

Be sure that all communications with the HR manager and your supervisor about your disability and need for accommodation are in writing. Ask your supervisor or HR manager to notifiy everyone trying to page you or call you that you are unable to hear.

Alternatives and/or accommodations include getting you a vibrating pager or cell phone, and a phone that flashes lights.

There are plenty of organizations in Washington that can help you and your company with accessibility devices.

Re: disability discrimination??

Ms. Kogut and Mr. Becker are both correct, and you have a remedy.

Your request is for reasonable accomodation. That is a term of art; use it, in writing to HR.

Then, look up the WLAD (washington law against discrimination) found in Title 49. It is read in conjunction with the Federal ADA law.

The remedies are stricter and WA takes this very seriously.

You can find Washington's Human Rights Commission on line through access dot wa dot gov, the homepage for the state. Hope this helps.

Elizabeth Powell